It strikes me that all the really effective ways of combating subjective bias
involve bringing in groups of people, whether it is democratic votes,
the communitarianism of science, or juries. It looks like having a single judge
deciding a sentence is a loophole to be plugged.
I would expect that bringing in groups of people weakens the influence of idiosyncratic biases (as well as idiosyncratic rationality) and strengthens the influence of shared/conventional biases.
I wouldn’t expect it to reduce subjective bias per se, though.
Note also that appeals courts are intended to counter the most egregious idiosyncracies… though they aren’t the same thing as having a council of judges making the decision in the first place.
It strikes me that all the really effective ways of combating subjective bias involve bringing in groups of people, whether it is democratic votes, the communitarianism of science, or juries. It looks like having a single judge deciding a sentence is a loophole to be plugged.
I would expect that bringing in groups of people weakens the influence of idiosyncratic biases (as well as idiosyncratic rationality) and strengthens the influence of shared/conventional biases.
I wouldn’t expect it to reduce subjective bias per se, though.
Note also that appeals courts are intended to counter the most egregious idiosyncracies… though they aren’t the same thing as having a council of judges making the decision in the first place.